Review: Chisinau X

Introduction

Welcome to Chisinau, the capital city of Moldova! Republic of Moldova is a landlocked country located in Eastern Europe, and it is bordered by Romania to the west, and Ukraine to the north, east and south. Chisinau is located in the middle of Moldova and it is the largest city in the country. As of 2014, Chisinau had a population of about 800,000 people. You can read more about Moldova and Chisinau on Wikipedia.

Chisinau Airport (LUKK) is the largest commercial airport in the country and is the headquarters of Air Moldova, the flag carrier of the country.

Installation

Installation was a breeze. The installer does everything for you, and all you have to do is make sure that you select the correct flight simulator once asked to do so. The installation process will create all the necessary folders in your main addon scenery folder and will add the scenery to your scenery library. The scenery also comes with SODE functionality that is needed for the airport to function properly (animations). You will have to make sure that you install the latest SODE, but the installer makers this easy by prompting you and giving you the link from where you can obtain the latest SODE installer.

Apart from the scenery files, the installation will save 3 pdf files to your computer - Manual, SODE information, and LUKK charts file. The manual is very short and mostly contains information about the country of Moldova, and the city of Chisinau. Small drawback is that the manual is not very comprehensive and does not offer much in the way of tips and hints on how to optimize your experience with the scenery (display settings, removal of the static planes, etc...)

Detail and Texturing

Drzewiecki have gone all out in this development. As soon as you find yourself at Chisinau you will notice the incredible amount of details that make the airport pop to life. On the apron you will see many static aircraft that are very easy on performance and very high quality. For those of us that like to have AI, rather than static aircraft, fear not, the plans depicted by Drzewiecki are mostly away from the main parking area and are not conflicting with AI planes.

After the planes you will notice quite a few cars, buses and other apron equipment. All done in great detail and some of them moving around as they do in real life. None of these had any major impact on the performance. Lastly, you will notice quite a few 3D people placed around. All of this creates a very immersive experience, and it makes you feel like you are there.

The eye candy does not stop there. The main terminal building has been completely modeled from the inside. This appears to be an increasing trend among the developers. It is a feature that can make or break the product. If not done properly the added strain of this on the VAS and the simulator will bring the frames right down. If done properly it adds another positive layer to our experience of the scenery. In Chisinau X, developers did a great job. Not only is the modeling and detailing perfect, but there was no noticeable impact on the performance.

The city itself is populated with autogen buildings, although there do not appear to be many custom objects, apart from residential blocks. Also, the textures change depending on the season. As you would expect, in winter it is dark and gloomy, and in summer very green. However, there are no snow textures.

At night, the airport is nicely illuminated. From above you can see stand spotlights working, and from the ground there is enough light to make it easy to navigate around the airport with ease. The city of Chisinau is also lit up.

Performance

Considering how many details Drzewiecki have put into Chisinau, the expectation would be that the performance will suffer. However, this is not the case. During the review process I used different aircraft, from highly detailed ones to default also the settings were quite high and at no time did the performance decline. I was getting constant 31fps (locked at 31fps), and even with AI aircraft around the frames did not drop. But more importantly the rendering was smooth and fluid with no micro-stutters present.

The area does not have many autogen buildings or trees so this helps as well.

VAS usage was very good. With my setup it was hovering around 46%. If you are using payware addons, like PMDG or Aerosoft Airbus, it will probably go a bit higher than this, but the scenery itself is not too hard on the system.

Other Images:

Reviewer: Igor Vuckovecki Date of Review: 16 March 2016

REVIEW OVERVIEW

Installation

Texture Detail

Performance

Accuracy

Value for Money

SUMMARY

Pros

Great performance

Seasonal textures (no snow)

Lots of extra detailing that makes the airport come alive

Super easy installation

Cons

Manual could be more comprehensive

No automated way to remove static aircraft

Summary
It was exciting to see Drzewiecki Design releasing an airport that not many people would think of flying to and thus expanding our virtual world to include often forgotten regions of the world. The quality of the design is excellent. The quantity and quality of detailing, from moving cars in the car park, to soviet-style residential blocks is astounding. Chisinau X will be a great addition to your sim regardless whether you fly short- or long-haul.